From dff0e2f153928bbca2560ebc0957286be1543cbd Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: oliexdev Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 06:06:17 -0800 Subject: [PATCH] Updated Home (markdown) --- Home.md | 16 +++++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/Home.md b/Home.md index 9de763e..7178aef 100644 --- a/Home.md +++ b/Home.md @@ -1,9 +1,23 @@ # openScale wiki openScale is an Open Source App for Android to keep a log of your body weight, fat, water and muscle. +## Writing an Android app + +## Reducing the power consumption + +## Adding external I²C EEPROM + +## Setting up a RTC module + +## Connecting a HC-05 Bluetooth module to a tablet + +## Reading the measured values with Arduino + +## Reverse Engineering of the scale + ## How its started ... I gained a little weight a while ago, not overweighted, but I decided to do something about it. So I started my first diet. I bought a diet book in a book shop and followed it strictly about 2 weeks. At the beginning it was really tough, but in the end my diet worked out. I lost around 10kg (around 22lb). In that time I checked my weight every two or three days with my normal digital bathroom scale. That's helped me to stay motivated because I was happy to see that I gradually lost some weight. The disappointment was that my diet progress was not tracked in any way. Of course I could create a spreadsheet and wrote down my weight values but that would be troublesome and not seasonable in a world of smartphones and tablets. -My first intention was to buy a ready to use wireless scale. So I searched on the internet for a wireless bathroom scale that can track my weight and display my diet progress on a smartphone or tablet. I found a couple of start-ups and companies which have wireless scales, for example [FitBit Aria](http://www.fitbit.com/de/aria) , [Withings Smart Body Analyzer](http://www.withings.com/de/smart-body-analyzer.html) , [Runstatic libra](https://www.runtastic.com/shop/de/runtastic-libra-scale) , [Medisana BS-430](http://www.medisana.de/Gesundheitskontrolle/Personenwaagen/BS-430-connect-Koerperanalysewaage-HausMed.html) and [Beurer BF-800](http://www.beurer.com/web/en/products/weight/diagnostic_scales/BF-800-white). Most of the design of the wireless scales and the app design are really good but the big drawback is that (except the Beurer BF-800 scale) sends all your data directly into the cloud of each company. Beside that you lost your privacy and the high prices, you need always an internet connection. You are heavily dependent to the company servers. For example some Withings users reported that they have always a delay between weighting and seeing the result in the app. All in all I don't want to give any health data to a company. The Beurer BF-800 was the only scale that doesn't send automatically all your data to a cloud (of course it's possible with Beurer-Connect). I decided to give Beurer BF-800 a try, so I bought one. I installed the [Beurer Health Manager](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beurer.connect.healthmanager) on my Nexus 10 tablet and tried to connect the scale via Bluetooth with my tablet. It didn't work. My tablet has Bluetooth 3.0 and the scale works with Bluetooth 4.0 (also named as Bluetooth Smart) and it is not downwards compatible (didn't know that before). To be fair on the Beurer website is a [list of compatible smartphones](http://www.beurer.com/web/we-dokumente/gebrauchsanweisungen/list-compatible-smartphones.pdf). But the Beurer Health Manager lacks also in design and many users reported on Google Play that they are unsatisfied with the app. Furthermore I don't want to buy extra a new tablet or smartphone that has Bluetooth 4.0 for only logging my weight. So I sent the scale back. +My first intention was to buy a ready to use wireless scale. So I searched on the internet for a wireless bathroom scale that can track my weight and display my diet progress on a smartphone or tablet. I found a couple of start-ups and companies which have wireless scales, for example [FitBit Aria](http://www.fitbit.com/de/aria) , [Withings Smart Body Analyzer](http://www.withings.com/de/smart-body-analyzer.html) , [Runstatic libra](https://www.runtastic.com/shop/de/runtastic-libra-scale) , [Medisana BS-430](http://www.medisana.de/Gesundheitskontrolle/Personenwaagen/BS-430-connect-Koerperanalysewaage-HausMed.html) and [Beurer BF-800](http://www.beurer.com/web/en/products/weight/diagnostic_scales/BF-800-white). Most of the design of the wireless scales and the app design are really good but the big drawback is that (except the Beurer BF-800 scale) sends all your data directly into the cloud of each company. Beside that you lost your privacy and the high prices of the scales, you need always an internet connection. You are heavily dependent to the company servers. For example some Withings users reported that they have always a delay between weighting and seeing the result in the app. All in all I don't want to give any health data to a company. The Beurer BF-800 was the only scale that doesn't send automatically all your data to a cloud (of course it's possible with Beurer-Connect). I decided to give Beurer BF-800 a try, so I bought one. I installed the [Beurer Health Manager](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beurer.connect.healthmanager) on my Nexus 10 tablet and tried to connect the scale via Bluetooth with my tablet. It didn't work. My tablet has Bluetooth 3.0 and the scale works with Bluetooth 4.0 (also named as Bluetooth Smart) and it is not downwards compatible (didn't know that before). To be fair on the Beurer website is a [list of compatible smartphones](http://www.beurer.com/web/we-dokumente/gebrauchsanweisungen/list-compatible-smartphones.pdf). But the Beurer Health Manager lacks also in design and many users reported on Google Play that they are unsatisfied with the app. Furthermore I don't want to buy extra a new tablet or smartphone that has Bluetooth 4.0 for only logging my weight. So I sent the scale back. Frustrated about the available commercial scales and the idea to have a new little project, I decided to make my own wireless bathroom scale. First of all I searched for information of similar projects. The resources that I have found are [SdCardBathroomScale](http://code.google.com/p/casainho-projects/wiki/SdCardBathroomScale) , [SmartScale](http://code.google.com/p/casainho-projects/wiki/SmartScale), [Bluetooth wireless bathroom scale](http://www.keyboardmods.com/2010/05/bluetooth-wireless-bathroom-scale-with.html), [hacking a digital bathroom scale](http://scanlime.org/2010/01/hacking-a-digital-bathroom-scale/) and the book [Arduino and Kinect Projects](http://www.apress.com/9781430241676). The both projects SdCardBathroomScale and SmartScale by casainho are really good. I wanted something similar. My goal was to have a appealing wireless scale that works with Bluetooth 3.0. All modifications of the scale should be hidden, so it appears like a normal scale. Also the constant connection to a Bluetooth device should not be required for the scale. Measured values should be temporary stored in the scale. Only if a Bluetooth device is around the scale, new measured values will transferred. Of course the power consumption of the scale and the microcontroller should be low as possible. Furthermore all data should be locally stored in the app or on the scale itself, so that the user has full control of their data. The app design should be light and simple. In addition I wanted to learn how to write an Android app from scratch. To fulfil all my requirements the project "openScale" was born. \ No newline at end of file